Supreme Court Rules Freight Brokers Can Be Sued for Hiring Unsafe Truckers

The Supreme Court ended a 31-year federal shield for freight brokers Thursday, ruling unanimously in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC that state negligent-hiring lawsuits against brokers are not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. The 9-0 decision opens up roughly 17,000 federally licensed property brokers to state tort liability whenever a carrier they dispatched causes a crash.

Shawn Montgomery, who lost his leg after a Mack truck driver veered onto the shoulder of an Illinois highway and struck him in December 2017, can now pursue his case against C.H. Robinson Worldwide, the nation's largest freight broker by revenue. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the eight-page opinion, finding that "a claim that one company negligently hired another to transport goods is not preempted by the FAAAA because states retain authority to regulate safety with respect to motor vehicles."

What the Court Actually Decided

Barrett's opinion turned on a single phrase. The FAAAA preempts state laws "related to a price, route, or service" of a motor carrier or broker, but its safety exception preserves state authority "with respect to motor vehicles." The court held that requiring a broker to exercise ordinary care in selecting a trucking company plainly concerns motor vehicles, since the truck is what causes the harm. The decision resolves a circuit split that had blocked these suits in the 7th, 9th, and 11th Circuits since 2023.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, filed a concurrence underscoring the stakes. He cited federal data showing roughly 500,000 truck crashes in 2022, about 5,000 deaths, and 114,000 injuries. Reading the FAAAA to shield brokers entirely, Kavanaugh wrote, would leave broker carrier selection "in a black hole with no meaningful safety-related regulation," because the FMCSA imposes almost no federal safety duties on broker hiring decisions.

What It Means if a Broker-Arranged Truck Hits You

For everyday drivers, the practical effect is straightforward. When a commercial truck causes a crash, your attorney can now name the freight broker as a defendant in every state, including jurisdictions where preemption blocked these claims a week ago. C.H. Robinson, Total Quality Logistics, XPO, RXO, J.B. Hunt 360, and every other broker that touched a load is in scope.

That matters because trucking companies frequently carry only the federal minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage. The median nuclear verdict in trucking crashes hit $36 million in 2022, according to Marathon Strategies data reported by Commercial Carrier Journal. Adding the broker, and the broker's insurer, as a defendant means a deeper pool of recoverable assets for catastrophically injured plaintiffs. Read our car accident legal advice guide before signing anything from a trucking company's insurer.

Your own auto policy still matters. If a trucking company is uninsured or underinsured for your injuries, the broker becomes another source of recovery, but the timeline can stretch for years. Solid uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage keeps your medical bills paid while the broker litigation unfolds. Most states' minimum policies fall far short of catastrophic injury costs, and our breakdown of state minimum car insurance limits in 2026 shows just how short those numbers run when a tractor-trailer is involved.

What Changes for Trucking and Broker Insurance

The current federal broker surety bond is $75,000. That bond exists to pay carriers and shippers if a broker fails to forward freight charges. It does not respond to tort claims, personal injury judgments, or wrongful death verdicts. Most brokers carry general liability and contingent cargo policies, but excess liability coverage at the levels seen in trucking verdicts is rare.

"Insurers are likely to respond by adjusting capacity, attachment points, and underwriting requirements, placing greater emphasis on continuous and demonstrable carrier risk management," said Janelle Griffith, managing director at Marsh Risk.

Three shifts will likely play out over the next 12 months. Broker professional liability premiums will climb as carriers price the new exposure. Smaller brokers will exit the market because they cannot afford the coverage or build the documented vetting infrastructure. Those costs flow to shippers, then into consumer goods prices. The IIHS push for broader fleet safety data through its work on commercial vehicle safety ratings in 2026 will give underwriters a stronger benchmark for pricing both broker and carrier accounts.

The Bigger Picture and What's Next

The Transportation Intermediaries Association and other industry groups have signaled they will lobby Congress for a statutory FAAAA fix to restore broker preemption. That effort faces a unanimous ruling and a Kavanaugh roadmap that plaintiff attorneys will cite for years. The trucking insurance landscape, where nuclear verdicts have already driven legal-system-abuse costs to roughly $1,724 per Texas driver per year, now expands to brokerage operations. Expect the first wave of post-Montgomery suits against C.H. Robinson, RXO, TQL, Coyote, and J.B. Hunt 360 to hit dockets within weeks.

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